Neither Blues, nor Alliance or Parties around MF Plan to Withdraw from Election

(RTVS, 'Sobotne dialogy', August 12) Neither the 'Blues, Most-Hid', nor the Alliance party or the grouping of parties around the Hungarian Forum (MF) plan to withdraw from the snap general election, even at the risk of wasted votes, their leaders said on RTVS's discussion programme 'Sobotne dialogy' (Saturday Dialogues) on Saturday. At the same time, Alliance chairman Krisztian Forro has called on the other two aforementioned parties to withdraw from the election. He believes that Alliance will make it to parliament. "We are the voice of the southern and eastern Slovakia, we won't withdraw from the fight," he said. According to their leader Mikulas Dzurinda, the Blues, Most-Hid will run in the election on September 30. He said he wants to drag the European Union to Slovakia. "Today I feel that we only have European prices, but everything else is far from Europe," he said. Leader of the grouping of parties around MF Zsolt Simon said that if they withdrew from the political fight, ethnic-Hungarian voters would have no other possibility, "but to vote for an alternative that might end up by Fico". According to the participants in the discussion, aid in connection with high energy prices might be more targeted. They see the problem chiefly in gas import and price. Simon stressed the need to focus on supply from countries other than the East. Forro added that the issue needs to be addressed in a coordinated manner at a higher level, not only at the level of Slovakia. The leaders of the three political entities see solution to the country's indebtedness, for example, in reforms, in "slimming down" the state administration and improving its efficiency. Simon believes that local governments need to be modernised as well. Forro added that the state should help local governments more with projects and with more efficient use of EU funds. Dzurinda would first of all focus on kick-starting the economy. "Because only when there is more money in the economy, we can talk about reforms, including fiscal decentralisation," he explained. ko